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So, I was on Twitter the other day and I saw this tweet from Dean and Sarah. Now, I recognize the name Dean and Sarah, but I really don't know anything about him and I don't even know what context I recognize his name.
So, I don't know this, but based on the way this is written, I feel like this is not a sincere tweet. I think that he's kind of posturing here. So, I'm going to read it and I'm going to take it seriously because I think there's a lot of people that are in Dean and Sarah's boat, even though I'm suspicious that Dean's actually not even in this boat.
So, here's what he says. He says, So, Dean, I'm going to take you seriously. Allow me to clear it up for you. Yeah, I'm going to just answer this in a very reasonable Latino kind of a way because, you know, I'm the reasonable Latino.
But, you know, I honestly don't think that Dean is really asking here. I think he knows why people have a problem with Tim Keller, but I'll explain it because I think there are some people out there that are a little bit baffled.
And just to kind of give you my bona fides here, I'm not going to go into the whole story, but I'm assuming you'll believe me. I mean, I have gone into the story many times, but I was very pro-Tim Keller when I first came to faith.
In fact, it was his book, The Prodigal God, that got me interested in the gospel in the first place. And I lived in New York. I attended his church. I used to consume so much Tim Keller material. So, I didn't just wake up one day and say, you know what, I'm going to be anti-Tim Keller now.
That didn't happen. And there were definitely people that kind of knew what Tim Keller's scam was in the very beginning. So, God bless you guys. You were right all along. For decades, you've been right.
But I'm more of a Johnny-come-lately. I've come to become anti-Tim Keller. And by the way, Dean, this is kind of why I don't think this is a sincere tweet. The way you've written it, it really makes it kind of suspicious.
Because I'm not anti-Tim Keller in the sense that I want bad things to happen to him or something like that. I'm anti the influence that Tim Keller has had on the church. I think he's had a negative influence on the church.
And so, I've done tons of content about Tim Keller. But I'm just going to give you my opinion here. And this is a little bit more personal than a lot of my other content. But just between you and me, Dean, if you want to get a full-orbed sense as to all of my specific issues with Tim Keller, just type in Tim Keller on my YouTube channel.
And you'll find all kinds of colorful commentary about the negative impact I think Tim Keller has had on the church. I think that the church is weaker because of what Tim Keller is doing these days. I think he's a false teacher, is what I'm trying to say.
But in any case, I think that a lot of people, kind of like me, started noticing that whenever Tim Keller would speak publicly about Christians to the media, he writes articles for the New York Times, the Atlantic, various pagan publications.
And look, if you want to write for the pagan publications, fine. But we get this distinct impression that he's embarrassed of regular Christians. I mean, he doesn't ever say, like, specifically hateful things about regular Christians.
But he's obviously very embarrassed about those of us, like myself, who believe that God created the world in six days, who believe in the waters above the firmament, who believe in things like that, global floods, you know, basic kind of Christian doctrines that even Jesus himself believed.
He's very embarrassed about that kind of stuff. And he doesn't seem to say or believe very nice things about Christians. In fact, he grants a lot of the most basic sort of village atheist type of arguments against Christians.
He often will grant the basic premises of their issues with Christians. And, you know, he'll nuance it in a kind of a way to make himself sound very thoughtful and smart. But we kind of just started realizing one day that Tim Keller, ultimately, he just didn't act like he was on our side.
And so once you start putting that feeling out to regular Christians, it's not very long before someone starts looking under the hood a little bit more about some of the stuff you're saying. And we come to find out that a lot of the stuff that you say, actually—and I'm talking to Tim Keller at this point—it's just not even true.
Like, there were some things that I found helpful about Tim Keller's presentations in the past, and I think he got me with rhetoric. And, hey, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with rhetoric. But when you get to the specifics, you look under the hood at a lot of his theology and a lot of his positions, and there's really not much there.
Here's a thread that I think will give you a good example. And there's two options, and we always have these two options, right? Someone could either be really stupid or simply lying. And I think in Tim Keller's case, he's a liar.
I think Tim Keller lies a lot, especially on Twitter. Let me read you this thread, and I'll tell you what I mean, Dean. So, Tim Keller, thread. He says there are two biblical norms. This is an example he's giving, Dean.
Maybe you read this thread. He says, here are two biblical norms, moral norms. Number one, it is a sin to worship idols or any god other than the true God. And two, do not murder. If you ask evangelicals if we should be forbidden by law to worship any god other than the God of the Bible, they'd say no.
We allow that terrible sin to be legal. But if you ask Americans if Americans should be forbidden by law to abort a baby, they'd say yes. Now, why make the first sin legal and never talk about it, and the second sin illegal and a main moral political talking point?
So, he asks the question. He says, why do most Christians think that it should be allowable to worship another god, even though it's a grievous sin, but they want to outlaw murder? That's his big brain-busting question.
Now, we have to ask ourselves, like, does he really think we don't have a coherent understanding of this, or is he lying? Because anyone who's gone to as much schooling as Tim Keller has and has thought about these things as much as Tim Keller has has probably come across very coherent reasons why one might believe that you should be able to privately worship any god of your choosing, even though that's a very grievous sin against God, but you shouldn't be able to murder somebody else.
Now, he's talking about abortion here, and I think this also kind of betrays that he actually doesn't think that murdering a baby is the same thing as murdering an adult because he kind of—he would never make this argument about murder proper, right?
Like, he would never say, wow, Christians are so incoherent. Like, can you believe they don't think you should be able to, like, slash your neighbor up just because you want to, but you should be able to worship another god?
Like, he would never make that argument, but anyway, I digress. So, I think he's lying here. I think this is a thread where he lies. And so he asks the question, why do one and not the other? Well, I mean, maybe he is just ignorant of this, but here's why.
Because in the Old Testament code—and this is something that, as a Presbyterian, he signed on the dotted line that the general equity of the Old Testament code applies today. I mean, listen, I don't go to a Presbyterian church, but I know the Westminster Confession.
I consider myself a Presbyterian. Tim Keller signed on the dotted line of the Westminster Confession, and so we understand that the civil law of God, the general equity of it, applies. And so the Old Testament code did not have a punishment in line for someone who privately was worshiping another god.
Now, it did have a punishment for someone who tried to entice you away from God, someone essentially who proselytized for another religion. And so we should talk about that, because I think that we probably—if we had a Christian nation, we should not allow proselytizing in public or trying to get people to commit treason against our country, our Christian country that honors God.
That should be a crime punishable by death. I mean, any treason, when you think about it, is punishable by death, because a law order has to have that in place in order to survive. And so I believe that that should still be the case.
But in any case, side issue—don't get distracted. So he's like, well, there's no coherent answer. So here's what he says. He just assumes that there's no coherent answer. And again, I think this is a lie.
He's lying about this. He says, at the very least, it shows a lack of knowing how to apply the Bible to politics, since we can't simply say, if the Bible says it's sin, it should be illegal. Again, like, who is saying that?
Is any Christian saying, if the Bible says it's sin, it should be illegal? Would he ever write this ridiculous thread about the sins of rape and gluttony? So it's like, well, why would you want to outlaw rape, you stupid Christians?
Because you don't even want to outlaw gluttony. Like, Tim Keller would never write that thread. But he writes this thread because this is a key issue in our culture today, and he's embarrassed of the Christian's position of being so emphatic.
Like, can you imagine writing a thread against the impulse of a Christian that says, hey, we should outlaw murdering babies, and you get out of bed, and you write this stupid thread about how Christians are hypocrites?
That's exactly what the village atheist does. You see what I'm saying here? He often will agree with the thrust of the stupidest arguments you've ever heard an atheist make. Like, you Christians think that abortion should be illegal.
Well, why don't you think gluttony should be illegal? And it's like, you expect a high school atheist to make that kind of an argument, but here's Tim Keller the Great essentially making the same argument.
And it's like, so we saw this kind of stuff, and I'm not going to go into the whole thread, but basically this thread says, look, the Bible doesn't tell us what to do with murderers. And again, that's not true.
He's lying. The Bible most certainly does tell us what the just penalty is for a murderer, and that's execution. And so we started feeling like, you know, man, it doesn't really seem like Tim Keller's on my side.
Like, he doesn't have my back. Like, if Christians were starting to be persecuted unjustly, in fact, this did happen in Canada and in certain, you know, counties in the United States, John MacArthur, stuff like that.
Notice, these guys were silent. Like, guys, if you and I started getting rounded up, I don't think this is going to happen. I'm not a doomsday guy, right? But if we started getting rounded up because we were worshipping God when the government said we shouldn't, Tim Keller wouldn't have your back.
We started feeling that in our bones, and then because we started feeling that, we started looking under the hood at some of these arguments, and it became very clear that, in fact, he isn't on our side.
In fact, he lies all the time. Here's another tweet of his that I, you know, again, I just, I don't think this guy, either he's really not that smart or he's simply lying. He says this. He says, discussion question.
This is like the next day, right? This is the next day after this disaster of a thread that he wrote about how the Bible doesn't tell us what to do about abortion. I mean, maybe socialism is the best answer to limit abortion.
So, like, maybe stealing from your neighbor is the best answer for limiting abortion. Like, this is all crazy. For a Christian, this is completely preposterous moral reasoning. But here's Tim Keller doing it, and again, while accepting the basic premises of the stupidest, atheist, oh, Christians are hypocrites, Tim Keller's like, yeah, you're right.
And it's like, man, it's just ridiculous. In any case, how Christians do you share the gospel with someone whose politics you despise and that you think are harmful? Do you even try? Do you establish a friendship, the historic way, in which to share your faith?
If not, what do you do? Thoughts? And I think he's trying to kind of signal that, hey, you know, I said all this stuff, kind of soft-pedaling abortion because I'm trying to share the gospel with people.
Like, so even if you hate what I said, like, you at least got to give me credit. I'm trying to become friends with these people. And, you know, I just—again, I think this is just so—it's so clear that he is embarrassed of Christians like me.
Because if I have a friend and they ask me what I think about abortion, I'm going to tell them exactly what I think about abortion. And I'm not going to soften it. I'm going to say exactly what it is.
It's murdering a baby, and God's completely against it. He hates when people are murdering innocents. He hates innocent blood being shed. And the thing is, like, do I have a whole lot of unbelieving friends?
I mean, not really, but the point is, like, that's not on my side. Look, I'd be friends with you if you didn't agree with me on the Scriptures. But the problem is, I just—I don't—I'm not going to pretend like I don't believe what I believe, right?
I believe homosexuality is a sin. I think that transsexuals are out of their mind and probably have demons. Like, I think that if you read the Scriptures, this kind of stuff is clear. And I'm not going to pretend not to believe it or that the Bible is maybe unclear about these things just to be your friend.
And I think Tim Keller here is saying, no, that's exactly what you do. You pretend that the Bible is unclear about the things that it's clear about. So I know the Scripture says, you shall not kill. And I know the Scripture says that the punishment for murdering is the death penalty.
I know that stuff. But I'm going to pretend like it's actually not that clear. You know, it's nuanced. And after all, maybe we should have pronoun hospitality and stuff like that. Just to be friends with you, I'm not going to do that.
In fact—and I've had unbelieving friends in the past. I remember I had a few Muslim friends when I lived in New York. And we were good friends, right? But I never pretended that I didn't believe that Christ was God in flesh with my friends.
And you know what? They respected me, and I respected them. I thought that they ought to repent of their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I told them that on many occasions. And somehow we were still able to be friends.
I think Tim Keller thinks, well, the only way you can be friends is if you compromise. In fact, that's what his whole gospel contextualization thing certainly sounds a lot like. And I remember when I was a young Christian, like I said, I was very pro-Tim Keller.
I went to one of his lectures, and I was a little bit of a fanboy. I'll be honest. It's kind of embarrassing. But I was a new Christian, and I remember his book was so influential to me. I went to this lecture in New York.
It was a free lecture he gave. And he sat next to me. I was like, oh, cool. Tim Keller's sitting right there. I'm not the kind of guy to go up to someone like that. But I remember that it just so happened that it was a lecture on gospel contextualization.
And even as a young Christian, I remember thinking to myself, you know, that sounds an awful lot like changing what the Scripture says or changing the emphasis of the Scripture in order to try to make converts, like changing the message to make converts.
Even when I was a young Christian, I noticed that. But at the time, I was like, you know, I just filed it. I was like, you know, that didn't make me suspicious of Tim Keller. I was just like, whatever.
He probably knows more than I do and stuff like that. And so, again, like we started feeling like he wasn't on our side. He didn't have our backs. He would not be against rounding up Christians for worshiping when the government said it's too dangerous.
He wouldn't be against that kind of stuff. We started feeling like that. And then we started looking under the hood and realizing, yeah, I mean, he just lies a lot. Here's another example. And I think this kind of gives you an idea of the kind of person that Tim Keller is.
He lies about stuff that even like it's so obvious he's lying that it's like, why even do it? Like sometimes I watch a lot of like police interrogations and stuff. And sometimes the criminal will just lie in such an obvious way.
It's like, why even do that? I mean, I don't get it. Anyway, so somebody wrote an article about Tim Keller, about how they changed their mind to sort of be like, man, I don't know about this guy. He's not that helpful anymore.
And it was a very popular article, at least in Christian terms. And the next day, I believe, it might have even been the same day, but at least the next couple days, Tim Keller writes this. He says, regarding online criticism, remember, only a tiny percentage of people see it.
And you can sometimes learn from it, even when it's ill meant. In the end, it's a compliment. They think you're dangerous and therefore important. That's nice, but don't let it make you feel noble and better than them.
And then here's the lie. He says, and no, this isn't aimed at anyone in particular, just a general truth I've observed and needed to be reminded of myself. That is a bold-faced lie. This is about the person who wrote that article.
I think it was in First Things. I forget the name of the person who wrote it. This is about that guy and people sharing that article with him. And here Tim Keller is saying, oh, it's not about anyone in particular.
This is one of the most transparent lies. It's not a big deal, but it's such a transparent lie. It's like it gives you a window into his mindset. This man lies like it's no problem at all. And I think that many people who are anti-Tim Keller's influence on the church have started to pick up on that.
They hear things in his theology. Oh, you know, the Bible whispers about sexual sin. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. He's lying about the Scripture there. And eventually you hear enough of these lies, and they're just bold-faced lies.
And they're all in the service of essentially trying to be well-liked by pagans and well-liked by the world so that you can maybe somehow convert them into your fold. You see enough of that, and it's like, man, you know, it really starts to get you angry that he would just lie about God so easily.
So, like, it's no problem. It really starts to get you to start being, you know, maybe I'm anti-Tim Keller. And then, of course, there's just the hypocrisy and the fake rules and stuff like that. And he always kind of presents this sort of holier-than-thou, I'm above the fray kind of thing.
I think that's kind of part of that lie as well that I just went over. You know, he doesn't want anyone to think that he's responding to this First Things article because that would be—he wouldn't be above the fray, right?
So he has to kind of throw in this lie, oh, it's not about anything in particular, even though it obviously is. But here's another example of kind of hypocrisy. I mean, Tim Keller has said all kinds of things about white evangelicals.
And I remember when they had the statement on social justice, he claimed that it was a racist statement because you got to look at the speech act theory. It's not so much what they said. He doesn't really have a problem with what they said, but it's like the reason they said it is wrong.
So that's why he's against it. And it's like, you know, but that's crazy, especially considering what he says here. He says, never describe the view of an opponent in a way he or she will not own. Rather, describe their view so that they could say, I couldn't have put it better myself.
Only then should you proceed to refute the view. If instead you caricature your opponent, you persuade no one. Now, I don't even agree with this necessarily, even as a standard tweet. I don't necessarily care if my opponent will own how I describe what they believe.
I care if it's accurate what I'm saying. So an abortion supporter would be like, well, it's not a human, so it's not murder. So if I call it murder, they're going to be like, well, hold on a second. You're not supposed to—you have to tell me my view in a way that I wouldn't refute, that I wouldn't object to.
It's like, no, that's actually not the standard, Tim Keller. I'm going to describe your positions accurately. I'm going to clear up your nonsense so that people can understand. They can see through your nonsense.
But even if you do take it at face value, he doesn't even do this. Again, here's another lie. He doesn't think this is what you need to do because he himself doesn't even do this. He describes opponents' views in all kinds of uncharitable ways, in my opinion.
So even he—again, there's just so much—every single time you see duplicity with Tim Keller or a lie or something like that, it's always to make Christians look bad. It's never the other way around. Now, look, I'm not saying that Tim Keller should lie to make Christians look good.
I'm not saying that. He shouldn't lie at all. But it's that kind of thing. You know how, like, Twitter will, like, make a mistake? Oops, we deleted your account by accident. But it's always a conservative account.
It's always a Republican. It's always a whatever it is. They only make the mistake one way. It's the same thing with Tim Keller. Whenever he's lying, whenever he's stretching the truth, whenever he's replacing his own words for what actually God said or making God's word appear unclear about something it's clear about, it's always in the service of some progressive, liberal, pagan wickedness.
It's never in the service of Christians. I don't think—yeah, I'm just gonna say it. I don't think Tim Keller likes Christians very much. I don't think Tim Keller likes Christians very much. I think he's embarrassed of Christians.
I think when he sees negative pieces in the pagan media about Christians, his impulse is to believe it. Like, if I see someone say, oh, wow, John MacArthur is so evil. Look at this evil thing that he said.
I don't say off the top of my head, hey, that can't possibly be true. But I'm not inclined to believe the pagan media about Christians. I don't think they report on Christians accurately. I've seen many examples of them not reporting on Christians accurately.
So I'm inclined to not believe it, right? So I'll check it out, but I'm inclined not to believe it. Think about if your brother who you grew up with your whole life, you hear a horrible story about your brother.
Like he killed someone or something. Normally, the normal reaction is no way. He didn't do that. That's like the norm. I know him. He's my brother. He didn't. He could never do that. And maybe he did.
Maybe he didn't. But your impulse is to defend your brother. And that's a good impulse. I'm not saying that's a bad impulse. That's a great impulse. Then, of course, you check it out. So you don't judge with partiality.
You check it out. Tim Keller's impulse when it comes to Christians is to believe anything. He'll believe anything. I mean, it doesn't matter who's saying it. It could be Colbert. It could be Mika, whatever her name is.
It could be the worst. What's her face? MSNBC. Just like the most biased, like the worst bias of all time. That woman who thinks she's a man who's a lesbian or something. She could say something wild about Christians, and Tim Keller would be like, Oh, yeah, of course.
I mean, yeah. I mean, Tim Keller is like, he's like a village atheist Christian. That doesn't make any sense. But you get my point. It's like his impulse is to believe the worst about Christians. And I think that, in a nutshell, that's why people are anti-Tim Keller.
He doesn't act like he loves the church. He doesn't teach like he loves the church. He doesn't engage in the pagan culture like he loves the church. And it's so palpable, and we feel it, and we see it.
And when we started to read more about him, it's just become so obvious. I wrote this thread, and I'm going to read it verbatim. I wrote this with Tim Keller in mind. I'm not going to lie to you. I had Tim Keller in mind, but I had other people in mind, too.
I had Big Eva in general in mind. And I think this puts it succinctly, so we'll end here. It says this. It says, Big Eva's standards of winsomeness and grace in communications only apply to pagans doing evil practices.
They go out the window when they're talking about Christians in America, especially white Christians who actually believe the Bible. Every evil under the sun is the fault of white evangelicals, whether or not they even engaged in it.
Even past evils from generations ago are their fault. There's no nuance, not even simple rational standards are applied to fellow Christians. But every nuance, no matter how insane, is applied to pagans who do vile practices.
Yet the Bible says, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. The fact is, there are many more wolves among us in Big Eva circles than any of us would like to admit.
Even I don't want to admit it. This is evidenced by the ease that regular pew-sitting Christians are publicly slandered by evangelical leaders to the media. They do it with glee, knowing they'll get another spot on the New York Times or CNN.
They're evil. They sold their soul for just a small amount of clout. They're loved by the world. They are on speed dial whenever media needs a safe evangelical take that is useful for their satanic agenda.
They're lauded as if they're not like those other Christians by the world. They're lauded by the world because the world always loves their own. There are many, there are way more wolves out there than you think.
They will reveal themselves more completely as time goes by. You'd better prepare your heart for it now because it will be hard to swallow. We'd be foolish to think it won't test us when the time comes.
By the way, I'm not talking about obvious people like Tisbee and Andy Stanley. Those guys are wolves in wolf clothing. I'm talking about names you wouldn't expect. Guys like Tim Keller. I don't say that lightly.
Tim Keller slanders the church with the best of them. He shirks back at all the spots that the enemy rages the most and slanders Christians in order to win favor with the pagans. It's so wicked, it's hard to put into words.
He has so much light, and he sold it all for a guest spot in the New York Times. Notice how people defend him. He did so much in New York City. He planted a church in the 90s and the 2000s. Yada, yada.
I grant all of that. I was part of that fruit. But now he's decided to confuse Christians for a living. I hope he stops, but I have no reason to believe that he will. You know that quote, where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved?
Run Tim Keller through that grid. Creation, sexuality, social justice, anti-white partiality, socialism. These are just a few topics. Look, loyalty sometimes change. Keller's got such a hold on so many pastors, even questioning him a little bit is enough to get you effectively church disciplined in many cases.
Keller's spell that has mesmerized the church for decades must be broken. I believe Tim Keller is a wolf in sheep's clothing. And if you have any love for Tim Keller, and you have the ability to reach out to him, reach out to him.
Because this palpable disdain for regular pew-sitting church members like me and others, it doesn't lead anywhere good. Put it that way. You can't do that to the bride of Christ to win a spot on CNN or the Atlantic or whatever.
You can't do that and get away with it. Anyway, Dean, I hope this video was helpful. I hope this helps you understand. I think you do understand already, but if you didn't, now maybe you do. I'm just a regular guy.
Tim Keller never burned me. I don't have any personal relationships with him, no vendettas. I'm just a guy that was very pro-Tim Keller and started to understand who Tim Keller was later in my Christian walk.
And now I'm just telling it how I see it. I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.